Puppet
by Pandemi
Summary: Summary: Rumors from the underground have been hinting that the Joker and Harley Quinn have found a new teen sidekick, a kid that they call Puppet; and Batman is determined to find out why this red-eyed kid is working with the Joker…


Note: Hey everyone! This is my first fan fiction! I hope you like it! Be gentle?

I'm not sure if this warning is still necessary, but: I don't own Danny Phantom or Batman

Now let the story begin!

* * *

The Batcave is not as dark and quiet as one might expect. Spotlights illuminate some of Batman's greatest and most memorable achievements and souvenirs, effectively lighting up almost the entire cave, except for some strategic shadows.

Occasionally, the sounds of talking and laughter can be heard echoing throughout the cave when Robin and Batgirl are on duty. Tonight, however, is silent. Robin and Batgirl have gone back to their respective beds, and the only sounds in the cave are the bats chirping, someone typing, and the noises from looped security camera footage that the Batman is trying to dissect.

Rumors from the underground have been hinting that the Joker and Harley Quinn have found a new teen sidekick, a kid that they call Puppet.

Puppet made his debut recently when the former duo, turned trio, decided to hit a string of jewelry stores. So Batman, with the security footage from each of the attacked stores, is trying to find out who this kid is, and why he's working with the Joker. He pauses the video when he has a good shot of the new kid.

Puppet looks to be around 14 or 15, in a red and black jester outfit like Harley Quinn's, but with clubs on the side instead of Harley's diamonds. His face is painted white with black lips and a pink circle on each cheek, he also has lines running down the sides of his mouth to his chin, making him look like a porcelain puppet. Batman notices that the kid has red eyes. _Probably contacts… that's not going to help narrow down the search, especially when the boy's hair is covered as well_.

Batman sighs. _This is going to take a while_. He gets shots of Puppet's face from multiple angles for facial-recognition, and puts the photos in the system to start looking for missing kids in the Gotham area. If he doesn't find an appropriate match, he'll increase the radius, repeat, and so on until he finds out who this boy is.

He sets the program to run in the background as he continues to watch the security videos.

 _Wait, what was that?_ Something on the screen flashed as it caught Batman's attention. He rewinds the video a few seconds, then plays it at half speed. _There_. On the Joker's hand is a ring set with a gaudy red gemstone. _That's new_. He thought it had just caught the light, but upon closer inspection, the ring did seem to actually glow. _It has to serve some sort of purpose. It doesn't exactly go with his usual style._ He rewinds the video to watch the section again.

 _"Puddin' the cops are comin'!"_

 _"Alright! Puppet! Take the jewels-" the ring on Joker's hand glows, "—and let's get outta here!"_

 _Puppet's eyes seem to become brighter for a moment, as if glowing as well, and puts the remaining jewelry in a bag and the trio escapes._

Batman pauses the video and leans back in his chair. _Well, this changes things. If that kid is being controlled—obviously, that ring has something to do with it— then we need to figure out the source, range, and magnitude of its power before we can make a move. And we need to do it fast; before the Joker makes him do something truly regrettable…  
_

* * *

After hours of research, false leads, and a couple calls to some contacts, Batman is left with nothing. He glances at the clock. 4:37. He looks back to the facial-recognition program; it's increased the radius several times by now, covering almost all of the east coast and working its way to the central states. There have been several partial matches, but nothing above 75%. He needs to continue looking.

 _Maybe I'll have a better chance at a lead on what's controlling this kid once we find out who he is._ He ran a gloved hand down his face, the recent sleepless nights are starting to catch up to him. _Might as well get a couple hours of sleep while I can_. He makes his way up and out of the cave and into the manor, a nice, soft, neglected bed waiting for him.

* * *

Bruce opens his eyes and glares at the clock. 10:41. He reluctantly gets out of bed and gets dressed.

As he makes his way down to the kitchen, he can already hear the voices of his young ward, Dick Grayson, aka Robin, and his girlfriend, Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl.

"Good morning sleeping beauty," Dick snickers. "What time did you—Hey, where are you going?"

Instead of sitting with the rest of the manor's residents to enjoy a hot morning meal, Bruce gets a cup of black coffee and starts walking in the opposite direction, towards the Batcave.

"I had the facial-recognition program running last night. I'm going to see if it found anything," Bruce said while taking sips of coffee.

"So it's true that Joker has a new sidekick?" asks Barbara, both kids jumping up to follow their mentor.

"Yes, they call him Puppet, and I don't think he's there willingly. It seems like the name 'Puppet' might not be just a name," Bruce replies as they enter the Batcave to change into their respective costumes.

"You think it might be blackmail?" Robin walks over to the Bat Computer to get a closer look at the new teen villain. "Or maybe mind control?"

"See for yourself." Batman plays the video that he watched the night before.

 _"Puddin' the cops are comin'!"_

 _"Alright! Puppet! Take the jewels and let's get outta here!" the Joker yelled while the ring on his hand glowed red._

 _Puppet's eyes glowed the same red while he put the remaining jewelry in a bag, and then the trio escaped._

"The ring is new. Both it and Puppet's eyes glowed red when Joker gave him an order," deduced Robin.

"So, mind control?" Batgirl wondered.

"Yes, but I haven't been able to find out the specifics on how the ring works yet. I figured that once we find out who Puppet really is, that might help with the search of how the Joker's controlling him." Batman moves to the computer and clicks back to the facial-recognition program. Several more partial matches have been found, and a single—

"Found him. Ninety-five percent match. Daniel Fenton, from Amity Park, Minnesota. Has been missing for just over a month." Batman starts to search for records on Daniel Fenton and Amity Park, and pulls up several articles.

"'Most haunted place in America'? Seriously? They expect people to believe this?" Robin mutters as he looks through the various articles.

"It says here that the Fentons are the town's leading Ghost Hunters… and that they think that a malicious ghost they've been after for almost a year, a 'Danny Phantom,' is responsible for their son's disappearance." Batgirl pulls up some articles. "Apparently, the intentions of this 'Phantom' being have been called into question several times. Most of the teenagers say that he's a hero trying to protect the town from other ghosts, while a lot of the adults say that he's a menace and a criminal." She pulls up three articles; one titled _'Inviso-Bill Kidnaps Mayor'_ with a video attached, another titled _'Danny Phantom: Hero or Menace?'_ with several photos and video clips, and the last article titled _'Ghost Boy Goes Bad'_ with multiple photos attached.

They quickly skim through the first article, detailing how Phantom, previously named _Inviso-Bill_ , had kidnapped the mayor of the town in which he haunts. Batman pulls up the video.

 _Phantom has his arms around the mayor's neck and shoulders, dragging him away._

 _"Oh no! Help! Help me!" the mayor pleads in panic._

"Something's wrong… that whole situation seemed… off, somehow." Batgirl looks to Batman and Robin, who narrow their eyes at the screen.

"First of all, that Phantom kid looked like he was panicking and struggling to get _away_ from the mayor, but the mayor was holding him in place," Robin starts.

"Second, the mayor's eyes were red, and his cries for help didn't sound genuine, he sounded like he was in control of the situation," Batman continues. "It's most likely that the mayor was being controlled to frame Phantom for the kidnapping, probably to soil any reputation he had at that point."

The next article shows Phantom fighting several different ghosts, some boasting about how they will rule the world, others yelling about destroying the hero, and one shouting about wanting his pelt. The article examines multiple fights and catalogues all of the damages done to the town, blaming Phantom for the destruction of several buildings, roads, and signs.

"Well it sure seems to me like these people are blaming this Phantom kid for stuff that is out of his control. I'm pretty sure that town would have a lot more damage if he wasn't there; now I get why most of the younger people see him as a hero," Batgirl pouts, folding her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, he gets a lot of hate for protecting his town," Robin says, looking at the green eyed, white haired, glowing ghost boy.

"We're not done yet," Batman states, switching to the last article: _'Ghost Boy Goes Bad.'_

They start reading the last article, stating that Phantom was seen robbing several banks, with photographic evidence to prove it. They bring up three pictures on-screen.

 _The first picture shows Phantom, red eyes wide and smiling greedily, surrounded with bags of jewels and gold, outside of what looks like a brand new, slightly smoking, entrance of a bank._

 _The second picture shows a boy with a hooded cloak in an aggressive stance wielding a scythe. His eyes glowed red as he glared at the camera, scowling angrily._

 _The third was another picture of Phantom; he had a scythe raised, red eyes glowing brightly and grinning evilly, as he was about to attack a young teenage girl with black hair in black and purple clothes. In the background was a pale man laughing maniacally while holding a staff with a glowing red gemstone set on top._

As the three bat-themed vigilantes examine the photos, Robin raises his hand to the screen and points to the back of the last photo.

"Doesn't that look like the Joker's ring?" Robin asks, pointing to the pale man's staff. "Phantom has had red eyes in all of these pictures, like Daniel Fenton. What if that guy was controlling Phantom the same way that Joker is controlling Daniel?"

"Unlikely. In my research, I came across a stone that was similar to that of Joker's ring, but I had dismissed it because Daniel didn't meet the conditions. But it does work for this situation: Red Bloodstone, enhanced with dark magic, it has the ability to control ghosts, spirits, and the undead." Batman narrows his eyes angrily at the pale man. _I really hate mind control_ , he sighs mentally.

"Wait, but… isn't that one Daniel Fenton?" Batgirl motions to the second photo. "I know that they said that these were all pictures of Phantom, but that one looks just like Daniel as Puppet… minus the face paint."

Batman pulls up two images, one of Daniel Fenton, and another of Phantom. _She's right. They look almost exactly the same._ He types something into the computer.

 _"Facial scan, initiating,"_ the computerized voice sounds. A second passes. _"Scan complete. Match confirmed."_

"They're the same person; that means that Phantom didn't kidnap Daniel like his parents thought. Daniel Fenton _is_ Danny Phantom! Another super hero! He must be some sort of human-ghost hybrid for the stone to work on him," Robin exclaims, then pales slightly. "Oh no."

"What's wrong?" Batgirl moves closer to Robin.

"You saw how powerful Phantom is, now the Joker is controlling him!" Robin waves his arms in the air.

"But he wasn't using his powers during the robberies. He displayed some heightened speed and strength, but that was all; I had just assumed that Joker gave him some ability enhancing drug," Batgirl shrugs. "Do you think that Joker can't make him change forms?"

"It's possible that he doesn't even know that Daniel has other powers besides speed and strength, let alone that Phantom even exists." Batman types on the keyboard, searching through more articles from Amity Park. He finds the one he's looking for.

"It says here that everything that Phantom stole while being controlled the first time was found in the possession of the ringmaster of Circus Gothica after his staff was destroyed. He calls himself Freakshow," Batman shows an image of the pale man. "He and Joker have similar themes; it's possible that they are acquainted, given how infamous the Joker is, and the fact that Freakshow operates a traveling circus.

"Unfortunately for Freakshow, the ritual to empower a red bloodstone is determined by the size of the stone. Compared to his staff, the stone in Joker's ring is significantly smaller. It's most likely that Freakshow acquired a new stone, caught Daniel while he was in his human form, but was unable to make him change into Phantom.

"He then had three options: Kill him, keep him, or sell him. The ring probably doesn't have enough power to keep him under control if Freakshow had tried to kill him, and from what it seems, he has no use for humans in his show, so that just leaves him with option three: sell him."

"So he decided to sell a powerful, obedient minion to _the Joker_?!" Robin slides a hand down his face. "I liked it better when psychopaths didn't work together to make our lives hell."

"But now we know what to do!" Batgirl says cheerfully. "We just have to break the ring, and Daniel will be in control again."

"So we either wait for Joker to make his next move before we act…" Robin smirks, "or we could get the drop on him and break into his hideout when he least expects it!"

"I do hope you intend to have a plan _before_ you go in, sir?" Alfred walks in with a tray of mugs and sandwiches. "And I would appreciate it if you ate something, sir; wouldn't want a few mishaps due to an empty stomach, now would we?"

Batman gives a rare smile, and takes a mug of coffee.

* * *

 _This kid is fantastic! He just does whatever I tell him! I love mind control._ The Joker grins at Puppet as they sort through the loot from their latest excursion. The kid had been a real asset to them recently; he's fast, he's strong, he's obedient. What else could a super villain want in a minion?

It was a stroke of luck that that freaky ringmaster was willing to part with him. _Bet he was just trying to get into my good graces after trying to crowd into my theme, but the joke's on him, I don't forgive that sort of crime very easily._ Joker glowers as he thinks about his exchange with Freakshow.

 _He just waltzed right up to me as if we were even close to the same league. He was pompous and condescending and I was thiiiis close to just killing him when he mentioned something about a gift. I thought I could at least see what it was before I killed him for his disrespect._

 _But then he stepped to the side and showed a brat with black hair and red eyes around Robin's age that was standing behind him. He gave me this stupid red ring and said that as long as I was wearing it, the kid would do whatever I told him. So I put on the ring and told the kid to punch that Freakshow idiot; he instantly gave me a malicious grin and punched that freak in the stomach._

 _The kid was strong, I'd give him that. Freakshow was pushed back a few feet with just that one punch. I supposed the gift was good enough to leave him still alive, but I swore, if I ever saw him again—_

"Puddin, look out!" Harley's voice breaking through his thoughts.

Just then, the windows came crashing in, and Gotham's very own resident heroes were flying down around them.

"WHAT? What are you doing here? I was in the middle of something!" Joker screams at them, looking around. "What happened to my guards?"

"Looks like you need to get better help, Joker," Robin taunts. Joker practically growls at him.

"Harley, Puppet! Get them!"

Harley Quinn and Puppet were instantly on their feet, Harley grabbing her weapon and Puppet's eyes glowing as they run towards the heroes.

Harley swings her giant mallet at Batgirl, forcing her to dodge, rolling away from the group. At the same time, Puppet takes a swing at Robin, making him go in the opposite direction. Joker grins wide at Batman, pulling out a small gun and aiming it at the Dark Knight.

"Hey Batman, nice of you to _drop_ by! Hahahah HAHAHA!" Joker fires his gun.

* * *

Robin is about to dash over to Batgirl when he sees that Harley Quinn split her off from the rest the group, but then he notices movement out of the corner of his eye. He turns with just enough time to dodge Puppet's fist, moving in the opposite direction from Batgirl.

Robin slides into a defensive stance. He needs to make sure that he doesn't hurt Daniel too much.

He gets momentarily distracted when he hears maniacal laughing from the Joker followed by a gunshot. But he doesn't have time to look around when Puppet starts attacking him once again.

"Come on, Daniel, snap out of it!" Robin whispers loud enough for only Puppet to hear.

Robin manages to redirect or dodge everything that Puppet throws at him when he sees a small flash of light. It's a batarang changing its course and flying back in Batman's direction, on a collision course with Joker's hand. He's talking, taunting Batman with something in his hand, he doesn't notice anything until—

CRACK

Puppet stops mid-punch, his momentum almost making him fall over as he blinks in confusion. He holds the sides of his head and looks like he just got the worst headache in his life. Robin sees the red glow in his eyes fade and disappear to his natural blue.

Daniel blinks and looks around.

"Where am I…?" He turns to Robin, eyes unfocused and confused.

"Why…?" He notices his gloved hands, and looks down at the rest of his outfit.

"What am I wearing!?" That seems to be the last straw as fatigue overtakes him, and he collapses.

Robin looks up to see Batgirl kick Harley to the ground, stunning her, and Batman walk up to Joker while he's in some sort of fit and punch him hard in the face before he can do anything else.

* * *

Batgirl rolls to dodge Harley's mallet, isolating her from the group. _Great_ , she thinks absentmindedly.

She gets up into an offensive stance but quickly turns her attention to Batman when she hears a loud gunshot. She has just enough time to realize that he's okay when the mallet once again enters her peripheral. She barely moves out of the way when Harley starts laughing.

"Hey hon, I thought _we_ were playin'!" She brings her hammer up to slam it down where Batgirl was just a moment before. "You think your little family of flyin' rats can come here uninvited," she swings again, "and ruin this," she misses, "just when Mistah J and I just found the perfect kid to complete our family," she swings angrily, "then you've got another thing comin'!"

Harley Quinn pants as she looks around, trying to find Batgirl when—

CRACK

She instantly looks at Joker, who is starting at his hand. The ring that used to be there has been replaced with broken red shards, and a batarang. She hears a low groan from the other side of her, and turns to see Puppet, clutching is head.

"Where am I…? Why…?" He looks down at himself. "What am I wearing!?"

"NO!" Harley Quinn cries. "This was our chance to be a family…"

While Harley is distracted, Batgirl manages to get behind her and roundhouse kick her to the ground, away from her weapon. While she's still stunned from the attack, Batgirl ties her up, drags her over to Batman, and runs over to where Puppet, now back to Daniel, has collapsed.

* * *

Batman dodges Joker's bullet and pulls out three batarangs from his utility belt. He throws them at the Joker in rapid succession. Joker side-steps the first one, letting it hit the floor behind him; the second one goes wide, and the third one finds its target as it lodges itself halfway into his pistol.

"Gah! Well, that one was getting old anyway," the Joker says dismissively as he tosses the broken gun to the side. "I already have something else that will really make this party _explode_!"

The Joker digs around in his pocket as Batman starts to run towards him.

He pulls out a small, hand-held device with a comically large red button in the center. The Joker wags a finger at Batman as he is forced to stop in his tracks.

"Now now, Batsy, take one more step and this will get _really_ fun!" Joker threatens with this thumb hovering over the large button.

"What I have here is—"

CRACK

The entire room falls silent as everyone looks at Joker. Where a ring with a gaudy red gemstone used to sit, was now a batarang, surrounded with the shattered remains of the red bloodstone. Joker quickly looks up to where Puppet is.

Puppet staggers to one side, holding his head. He looks up and around the room, dazed.

"Where am I…? Why…?" He looks down at himself. "What am I wearing!?"

Joker whips back around to glare at Batman.

"You just have to go and ruin everything, don't—" he starts before Batman punches him hard in the face, knocking him out.

As Batman ties up a now unconscious Joker, Batgirl drags a hysterical Harley Quinn over to his side.

"You won't get away with this one, Bats! We was gonna be a family!" She screams at them. Batgirl ignores her and runs over to where Daniel collapsed.

Batman calls Commissioner Gordon of the GCPD to pick up the Joker and Harley Quinn, as well as about twenty of Joker's cronies outside. He makes his way to where Robin and Batgirl are to see them trying to lift an unconscious Daniel, with his arms over their shoulders.

"We should probably get him out of here before the GCPD show up. I really doubt he wants this on his record," Robin reasons.

Batman nods and calls the Batplane to pick them up.

* * *

The first thing Danny notices when he wakes up is that he hurts all over; he's usually sore the morning after a night of hunting ghosts, but this feels worse, and he's got one _killer_ headache to boot. He would laugh at his mental pun if not for the second thing he notices when he wakes up. He's definitely _not_ in his room at home.

He jolts upright and instantly regrets his entire life's choices that lead up to this point. He grabs his throbbing temples and groans, wishing he could just go back to sleep, but he has to find out where he is and why he's here. He slowly lets go of his head and looks around.

He's in a cave. _Ookay?_

A cave with a giant computer and spotlights on random-looking things and— _Wait is that a dinosaur? And a giant penny?_

"Where the hell…?" He mumbles to himself as he looks around.

"Glad to see you're awake," says a dark, gravelly voice behind him.

Danny totally does _not_ jump at least a foot into the air, and definitely _doesn't_ let out a little 'eep!'

He turns around to see none other than Batman, the Dark Knight, Gotham's very own Caped Crusader. Danny's eyes widen with more than a little fear and confusion.

"B-B-Batman? W-Why are you here?" Danny stutters out. Batman merely raises an eyebrow underneath the cowl.

"This _is_ my cave," Batman says with a hint of amusement, making Danny relax a little before his eyes widen in surprise.

"Wait. _Your_ cave? As in _the Batcave_? As in the Batcave that's in _Gotham_?" Batman nods. "Why am I in _Gotham_!? What happened?"

"What is the last thing you remember?" Batman asks gently, putting Danny at ease a little bit.

"I… I was at school, and then my gh- I… got a call… that I had to take… so I stepped outside for a minute. Afterwards, I was about to go back to class… when… when…" Danny shakes his head. "I don't remember after that, all I'm getting is red—" Danny stops, recognition clear on his face.

"Freakshow…" Danny whispers almost too low for Batman to hear.

"I-uhh, I-umm…" Danny tries to find an excuse to why he would be in Gotham.

"You don't have to do that," says another, younger-sounding voice. Danny looks up to see Robin and Batgirl walking up to him, small smiles on their faces.

"Why…? Do what?" Danny asks weakly.

"Try to find an excuse. We already know that you were being controlled by a red bloodstone," says Robin with a knowing smile.

Danny's eyes widen at that. _Red bloodstone? That's what Freakshow uses… but it's supposed to only affect ghosts! Do they know?_

"R-red bloodstone, you say? Isn't that, uhh… isn't that only supposed to control ghosts?" _Great, Fenton. Real smooth_. He then processed the rest of what Robin said.

"Wait, controlled? What—what happened? What did I do!?" Danny starts to feel panic bubbling up in his chest.

Batgirl giggles a little and points to Danny. Still very much confused, he looks down.

"What are you—WHAat am I wearing?" Danny nearly falls off the little table he was apparently sleeping on. He was wearing a jester's outfit like that one villain, Harley Quinn, sans hat and face paint. Now he was panicking even more.

"Seriously, what happened? Why am I here? What—what did I do?" _What do you know?_ Was the unasked question.

"Well, Daniel—"

"Danny," he corrects without thinking. "Uhh, I prefer Danny."

"Danny." Batman continues. "You were being controlled by the Joker through a magic red bloodstone ring. With him and his partner, Harley Quinn, you robbed several jewelry stores under the disguise and moniker of 'Puppet.' We did some research and found out who you were and how you were being controlled. We confronted the Joker and broke the ring, releasing you from his control." Batman notices a worried look that Danny was giving him.

"No one was seriously injured during any of the robberies." Danny releases a small sigh of relief.

"Yeah, it's a good thing that you weren't in your Phantom form," Robin says thoughtfully. Danny pales. Batgirl sees the shock and fear in Danny's eyes.

"Hey, don't worry! We won't tell anyone, we swear!" She tries to comfort him. "We of all people know the importance of secret identities."

"You… you won't tell my parents?" Danny asks worriedly.

"We will have to come up with some sort of cover story so they don't blame your alter-ego for your disappearance," Batman reasons. "You have been missing for over a month."

Danny blanches.

"A MONTH!? How am I ever going to explain that?"

"We'll figure something out, we always do," Robin smiles.

* * *

Two days later, Batman is sitting in his cave, speaking with Commissioner Gordon through a video-chat.

 _They had come up with a story that a ghost with a grudge against the Fentons had kidnapped Danny, and Phantom left to go look for him. The ghost kept moving him around, so by the time Phantom caught up with them, it was a month later and they were in Gotham. Phantom and Danny have been on their way back to Amity Park ever since then._

 _Batman flew Danny to a clearing in Minnesota just outside of Amity. There was an awkward good-bye where Danny had said that he hoped never to be in Gotham again, then stuttered a back-track when he realized what he said. They shook hands, and Batman told him that they'll be in touch._

"You found out who Puppet was and you let him go?" Gordon asks in frustration.

"He was under mind control. He never did anything willingly," Batman clarifies. He really did not want the GCPD to go looking into Danny Fenton, while the Commissioner was very good at what he did, the Gotham City Police Department still had its fair share of corruption.

"We should consider ourselves lucky that the Joker didn't have any more control over the kid than he did, or else he could have caused a lot more damage than a few robbed jewelry stores," Batman explains.

"Are you saying that the kid's a meta-human?" Gordon asks, wide-eyed.

"Let's just say that we might be seeing him in the Justice League in a few years."

That is one thing that Batman is certain of.


End file.
